Capital Cities Traffic Jam Report

Traffic jamHeavy traffic jams are causing major headaches–and not just on the roads.

Mayors around the globe are struggling to formulate the best strategies for ensuring their cities remain up and running as efficiently as possible in an increasingly competitive and time-sensitive global environment. Toronto’s mayor John Tory recently stated that he was willing to ride shotgun in a tow truck in order to keep traffic moving in his fast-growing city.

To give further perspective on the problem, a recent study focused on the human costs from traffic jams in terms of average time that drivers spend fuming in traffic during peak hours each year. The 2016 INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard rated 1,064 cities across 38 countries for overall traffic congestion.

Los Angeles, California was the overall leader where motorists spend an average 104.1 hours stuck in traffic congestion during peak hours. In contrast, drivers averaged just 26 hours annually in the American cities Baltimore and New Orleans as well as in Palermo, Italy.

Capital Cities Traffic Jam Report

Twenty of the 100 highest ranked cities on the new global traffic study are country capitals. Presented below are the INRIX rankings and average hours spent in traffic congestion during peak hours for each national capital.

2. Moscow, Russia: 91.4 hours per year

5. Bogota, Colombia: 79.8 hours

7. London, UK: 73.4 hours

9. Paris, France: 65.3 hours

11. Bangkok, Thailand: 64.1 hours

12. Mexico City, Mexico: 61.5 hours

13. Washington DC, United States: 61 hours

19. Jakarta, Indonesia: 55 hours

28. Cape Town, South Africa: 49.1 hours

34. Oslo, Norway: 46.5 hours

41. Brussels, Belgium: 41.3 hours

43. Berlin, Germany: 39.8 hours

44. Madrid, Spain: 39.6 hours

48. Vienna, Austria: 39.3 hours

50. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: 39 hours

60. Rome, Italy: 35.1 hours

61. Stockholm, Sweden: 34.8 hours

71. Berne, Switzerland: 31.8 hours

74. Dublin, Ireland: 31.4 hours

87. Pretoria, South Africa: 28.1 hours

The 2016 INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard did not analyze all country capital cities. Notably missing was data for Beijing, Tokyo and Manila. Given these highly dense populations and extremely busy traffic flows, it would be extremely interesting to see the comparative hours logged during rush hours for these Asian capitals.

Among the top 100 cities with the greatest number of hours spent in traffic gridlock during peak hours, 28 were American compared to three for Canada. Montreal led all Canadian cities with 52 hours, followed by Toronto at 38 hours and Vancouver at 30 hours.